The Google-backed Open Handset Alliance adds Vodafone and Sony Ericsson, along with 12 others, to boost the Google Android mobile and wireless operating system. The move points to the momentum Android is gaining with the T-Mobile G1 and promises of future phones in 2009 from Sprint, Motorola and others.

OHA said in a statement that new members will make Android devices, contribute
significant code to the Android Open Source Project or support the Android
ecosystem with products and services that will accelerate the availability of
Android-based devices.

No matter, analysts say. The new OHA members, led by telco carrier luminaries
Vodafone and Sony Ericsson, show potential. Greg Sterling, of Sterling Market
Intelligence, told eWEEK the added OHA support is about "momentum and
anticipated phones."

Sterling pointed to the coming
Kogan Agora and Agora Pro Android smartphones, which Kogan Technologies will
unleash in January. Motorola has also made a big commitment to the Android
platform, and AT&T previously said that it will have an Android phone out
in 2009, he said.

Bloomberg and GigaOm said Sprint, having seen the progress of T-Mobile's G1,
will work with chip companies and handset makers to develop a Sprint device
based on Android for 2009.
Sprint has 50.5 million customers, making it the biggest U.S.
carrier to adopt Android even as market leaders Verizon Wireless and AT&T
Wireless decline to support Google.

Ovum Research's Adam Leach said the move signals greater confidence in the OHA
and the Android platform within the mobile industry.

Noting that applications created for Apple's iPhone are beginning to drive
revenues for mobile network operators and developers, Leach said strong sales
of the G1 indicate Google and the OHA have a growing developer community for
Android.

New OHA members will only fuel this growth, leading to a greater number of
Android devices in the market next year, Leach wrote in a Dec. 10 research
note. Leach is so bullish that he believes Google could eventually challenge Nokia and its Symbian Foundation.

"Google and its OHA partners have the opportunity to build a critical mass
of supporting handsets during 2009," Leach said. "This will be the
real litmus test for Google. If it achieves this momentum in the handset market
in 2009, then it has the potential to challenge Nokia and the Symbian
Foundation for dominance in the handset software market."

BusinessWeek's Olga Kharif nicely sums up Android's bolstered
position versus Nokia and Microsoft Windows Mobile as a result of the new OHA
members.